November 24, 2025 • 28 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 3 (11/24) - Pacific Palisades resident and attorney Saied Kashani comes on the show to talk about the Palisades Fire after-action report cover up going on. Even Mayor Karen Bass is lying about the recovery and rebuilding going on in Pacific Palisades. A Southwest Airlines passenger started screaming at a gate agent for the plane being late.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
I am six forty. You're listening to the John Cobelt
Podcast on the iHeartRadio app. We are on every day
one till four o'clock. After four o'clock John Cobelt Show
on demand on the iHeart app, and you listen to
what you missed in that first hour. We did a
lot on in La another La Times expose about the
Palisades fire. It is hard to believe. Every few days,
(00:23):
another revelation, and often the revelations are about all these
officials lying, lying and then shutting down, disappearing, refusing to comment.
And the latest is about the interim fire chief, Ronnie Vanueva.
He took over after Kristin Crowley was fired by Karen Bass.
When Crowley pointed out that Bass had basically defunded the
(00:48):
fire department and they didn't have the personnel or the
fire trucks of the mechanics necessary. Of course, Crowley her
sins included not deploying existing fire trucks, personnel, not following
up on the January first fire, and that January first
fire is looming more and more important as time goes by.
It was set by an arsonist. They caught the arsonist.
(01:10):
He's going to go on trial eventually, and but for
the after they put it out, and they put it
out relatively quickly. It was it was a small fire
when you talk about Acridge. But on January second, January third,
and in the days following, they they they were hotspots.
There were hotspots, and the firefighters wanted to put them out,
(01:33):
hot tree stumps, hot rocks, smoke, smoldering and inexplicably, inexplicably,
the battalion chiefs said, let's go home, roll up the hoses.
And then you had via Aweva ronnie Vi in a Weeva.
He claimed that on January third, we cold trailed the
(01:53):
fire area. We went back there again. We dug it out,
you know, they put their hands to feel for he
they dug out the hotspots, We put letters on it.
We cold trailed again. We did all of that. Did
none of that, according to the log in their records,
doesn't mention cold trailing, doesn't mention any action. In fact,
(02:17):
they sent everybody home after thirty four minutes. The fire
department spokesperson contacted by the La Times, Captain Eric Spott,
Eric Scott. Rather they sent him emails, they sent him
text they sent him in person. The agency refuses to
explain the in AEVA, does not respond to any requests
for interviews, does not respond with any comments at all,
(02:40):
So the cover up continues. Let's talk now to Sayed Kashani,
the attorney who has been on our show a number
of times. He's going to the meetings. He was burned
out in the palisades, sayed, how are you? Sayed beeped
at me and is he gone. We'll figure out what's
(03:04):
wrong with the connection, because I don't know how to
interpret a beat. By the way, former LA Fire Department management,
like battalion chief said Battalion Chief Rick Crawford for Assistant
Chief Patrick Butler said, you know, if you're going to
do an after action report, it's got to include the
(03:26):
period before the fire, especially since one fire led to
the next, and this after action report that the fire
department put out addressed none of that, saied Kashani.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
How are you john to have good to be back
on our show?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Well, what do you make of all this here?
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Well, as you know, my my focus has been on
the water supply in the reservoir from day one of this,
and we had an additional whitewash from the state on
this issue. You may recall it. About two months ago,
we had a conversation John in which we gust and
we predicted that the state was going to issue a
(04:04):
report which we'll say, nothing to see here. The reservoir
wouldn't have made any difference if it were full of
water at the time of the fire. Well and behold,
two days ago we got a report from the state
claiming nothing to see here. The reservoir would have made
no difference during this fire, which is exactly as we predicted.
But this report, as we said, is self serving and
(04:27):
not credible. First of all, who authored this report. It
came from five California agencies. Three of the agencies are
involved in so called clean water regulations, that's California EPA,
California Water Quality Management, these entities. These are the same
entities and government agencies that forced DWP to drain the reservoir.
(04:52):
So the same agencies that required the reservoir to be
drained in two thousand and four are now coming out
and claiming, oh, this is to make any difference. Well,
what else are they going to say? They're the ones
responsible for draining the reservoir. Obviously they're not going to
come forward and admit that, oh, because we drained the reservoir,
this caused a problem. Obviously they're going to claim that
(05:13):
it wouldn't have made any difference in the fire would
have burned all these houses anyway. So right now, right away,
Number one, lack of credibility. Number two, what is the
information in the report? There's no information in the report.
The report from these state agencies is just repeating claims
from the Department of Water and Power. So it's just
(05:33):
circular reasoning. They're repeating what the DWT claimed actually on
a press release they made back in July, where the
Department of Water Power just gave some basic nonsense about
well we've got a flow ray and we've got this
and that, and no details or facts or information, just
claiming well, this is our system works. Well, the state
jumped on that and said it wouldn't have made any difference. Now,
(05:55):
if you want to get into the details, I can
do that too. But this report is just more of
the same whitewash were getting from government agencies covering up
their own mistakes, issuing self serving reports. No independent investigation
of what happened or why it happened.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
There is no investigation coming from the state Attorney General
or from the Assembly or the Senate. There should be
a committee hearing into the reservoir situation. And then this
new report today cold trailing never done at the Lockman fire.
I mean, all we now have after action state report,
after action local report has told us nothing and covered
(06:35):
up all the bad acts and all the negligence. And
maybe the FEDS can investigate this stuff. I know they
started with that public hearing last week. I don't know
if they're going to follow through. There seems to be
no curiosity on the part of people those who in charge.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Well, the US Attorney is doing some investigation, but you
know they're trying to shut him down too. I mean,
I had to put a party label on it. I
didn't want to get to so much into the politics here,
but the Democrats in Congress have been trying to shut
down and get fired our local US attorney who's the
only one who did an investigation or found the arsonists
(07:15):
and also has been trying to investigate what happened in
the Lackman fire, whether it was put out, whether there
was sufficient control and clearance after the fire, and the
Democrats in Congress have been trying to shut him down.
The state filed the lawsuit against the US attorney to
try to remove him from his post.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
One of the things about the water Reservoir report, and
this has fried me from the beginning, is they keep
talking about they had a regulation they had to put
they had to replace the cover because it's used for
drinking water. This was not a necessary drinking water reservoir.
It was built for firefighting. In fact, since the reservoir
(07:55):
was empty for a year, there was no shortage of
drinking water in the Palisades at all. But they intentionally
confused those issues to make it seem like, hey, we
were mandated by law to repair this reservoir, and even
if they were, it should have taken a month, not
a year.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Not only that there was no reason to drain the
reservoir where they were waiting and going through their so
called contracting process to find someone to fix the cover.
They even if we accept, even if we agree, which
I don't agree. And there's a professor at UCLA, you
should talk to depitheologist who has done a study of
this area and shown that there's no water risk whatsoever,
(08:37):
no risk of contamination, no risk of any problem to
the water spright but let's put that aside. All they
had to do was shut off the valve that runs
from the reservoir to the drinking water supply, leaves the
reservoir full until you're ready to fix the cover, and
meanwhile the water is sitting there in the case of
an emergency, in a fire emergency, you open the valve
and the water is available. But instead they drained it
(09:00):
lad And now the same state agencies that forced the
DWT to drain the reservoir are now saying, Oh, this
wouldn't have made any difference. I can't stand what they're saying.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
I can't. I mentioned this earlier in the show. I
met a couple on a hiking trail on the Palisades.
He saved this house with his own two and a
half inch fire hose because he'd gone through a fire
as a child with his family, and so he wet
down his property in his roof and he saved several
homes around him, and nobody from the fire department ever
(09:32):
showed up to do anything useful. All by himself with
one hose, he saved several homes. I think the one hundred
and seventeen million gallons would have made a difference going
out on my neighbor.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
My neighbor three houses down was out there with the
fire hose and he was able to keep his house
free of fire and safe until about ten thirty eleven
o'clock the first night when the water shut off. All
it took was a little bit of water. In many areas,
there were not sheets of flames. Some inferno are running
(10:04):
down the hill destroying everything. We're talking about embers. We're
talking about floating, small pockets of fire that could easily
have been controlled with a small amount of water. Many
of the houses had sprinklers, sprinkler systems indoor and outdoor,
which could have controlled the fire. Right, hang on, hang
on just a second one to continue system.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, I gotta take a break. Do the news.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI A
M six forty.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
We continued with Palisades attorney say Ed Kashani lost his
house in the fire, and he has been tracking meetings.
He's been tracking all the reports. We've been discussing the
after action report from the state over the reservoir situation
and the lack of water which was completely whitewashed. UH
and then the report from the after action report from
(10:53):
the LA Fire Department, same thing, completely white whitewashed the
lack of treatment to the original fire, which led to
the second fire. And we've got a situation, obviously now
where everyone is officially not taking any responsibility for all
their bad actions, their inactions, the damage they caused, their
(11:17):
lack of response, their lack of preparation. I mean, it's
a fiasco of monumental proportions, and nobody. Nobody's commenting anymore,
nobody's putting anything in the reports. We're all just supposed
to go home. So is this the way it's going
to be. What is everybody's supposed to do about this situation?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Well, the two ways that we're going to get the information.
The one is if again as we've talked before, if
there's an independent investigation, meaning a federal investigation, and the
state and the locals are doing their best trying to
shut down the federal investigation, but some of it is
continuing with the US Attorney and possibly the said investigation.
(11:58):
The other way, actually they're doing a very good job,
is the private attorneys prosecuting the lawsuits against the city
in the state. They've done excellent research and come up
with excellent information. I know you've had some of them
on your show, Roger. They're doing a very good job.
And you know what's interesting, what the state is doing
in a way is self defeating, because do you remember
(12:20):
about two weeks ago the governor pooh pooed these lawsuits.
He came out and said these losses are frivolous, and
arsenals said this fire forget it. The very next stay
what happened, some firemen came forward whistleblowers and said, hey,
wait a minute. We wanted to secure the site, eliminate
the hospots and fires, but we were told to leave.
(12:41):
So the more the state squeezes and tries to suppress information,
the more whistleblowers come forward and maybe tell us the truth.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
That's really the only hope is that they're getting so angry,
so pissed off at everyone lying and covering up, they're
going to say the hell with it. They're all afraid
of getting fired. Though. I think every man and woman
in the LA Fire Department who knows something important doesn't
want to talk publicly, doesn't want their name attached to
it because Karen vasseill get rid of them.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Well, they saw what happened to their former chief chief Crowley,
so possible they're afraid of that, but there are protections
for firemen who come forward and make statements. I just
hope that some of them are brave enough and conscious
is enough to come forward. Some obviously have made statements,
not necessarily on the record, but they've made statements and
(13:29):
they've told information. So they people need to come forward
and tell the truth. That's the only way we're going
to get to the bottom of this.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
All right, thank you for coming on, Saed.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Sure, thank you for having me appreciate it, all.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Right, said Kashan. He's an attorney, and I've learned outside
the LA Times there aren't too many other sources of
reliable information. And he has been because he's actually read
all the reports and he's gone to the meetings. And
we don't have an infrastructure here anymore to investigate and
(14:03):
report on what really happened and why it happened. And
there's nobody to make all these people accountable. Nobody's gotten fired.
Newsome's still in office. He's running for president. Bass is
still in office. She's running for reelection. Jenise Kinoniez is
still getting her seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars salary.
(14:24):
Kristin Crowley is still working for the fire department. She
got demoted and sent to an office, but she's working.
Ronnie van Oweva is still working. All these and then
this new one Hi Memore, and none of them are
telling the truth. None of them are being forthcoming, all
of them are stonewalling, all of them are evading responsibility.
All of them think we're a bunch of idiots. The
(14:46):
spokespeople have even stopped talking. Well again, this is not
going away because there's too much juicy stuff that's come
out just in recent weeks, and there's a whole lot
more to come. So all the people that care, you know,
the the attorneys, as he pointed out, they were doing
the lawsuits, the Ali Times writers, what we're doing here,
(15:10):
people like say Ed Kashani, We're just going to keep
at it and we'll find out it's never going to
go away. Karen Bass will be connected that fire. Gaven
Newsen will be connected that fire every day for the
rest of his life. We're going to see to that.
And same thing with Genie Canonias, and the same thing
with the rest of these Charlatans. Clowns and jokers. You
think you think you can kill people and get away
(15:32):
with it. You think you can burn a whole town
down and get away with it. You really think you
can do that? Huh, Well, you're not going to more
coming up.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
So many lives coming out of the fire. Karen Bass
had one. You probably heard the story that the first
home in the Palisades has been rebuilt, right, and Karen
Bass took credit. She wrote in a statement, the Palisades
(16:10):
community has been through an unimaginable year, and my heart
breaks for every family that won't be able to be
home this holiday season. Right, but today is an important
moment of hope. With more and more projects nearing completion
across the Palisades. There are zero projects nearing completion. The
City of Los Angeles remains committed to expediting every aspect
(16:31):
of the rebuilding process until every family is back home. Okay,
that's because one home was given a certificate of occupancy.
That home was purchased in early November and was not
burned in the fire. They had to halt the rebuild
(16:57):
while the disaster happened, but the the home wasn't burned.
She's taking credit that. Look, we're on our way. This
is the first rebuild since this was in the works
before the fire. They had to stop because of the fire,
but the property was not damaged by the fire. I mean,
(17:20):
she is shameless and she thinks again that nobody's going
to notice. In fact, it ended up being delayed because
of debris removal, plan checks and permit reviews. Now the
house is finished and was publicly celebrated by Karen Bass
(17:41):
as a sign that we're building is taking shape. No,
at this stage, out of all the homes that were burned,
none of them have been rebuilt. Three hundred permits out
of nearly seven thousand bird structures, three hundred, none of
them to completion. The home was assessed for sale two
(18:01):
months before the fire and sold shortly thereafter. The building
plans were submitted soon after the purchase. Final approval didn't
come till April. Total absolute nonsense and lies. Meantime, up
in Sacramento, we've been telling you about all the corruption
(18:22):
going on there, and if you remember, last week, the
FBI had sent letters to many politicians, staff members, lobbyists
in Gavin Newsom's orbit and in the Sacramento government. And
this came right after Newsom's former chief of staff, Deana
Williamson was indicted on twenty three felony charges she and
(18:45):
a couple of others were looting money from an account
that was owned by Xavier Bessera's political Action committee or
his campaign committee. And now The New York Times has
done a story. They had a lot of reporters sniffing
(19:05):
around Sacramento these people, and there were dozens and dozens
of them had their phone calls and text messages and
emails intercepted, phone calls and text messages captured on a
wire tap. Many of them have worked together for decades.
(19:26):
According to The New York Times, they work in a
several block radius around the state capitol, drinking at the
same ordering holes, dining on their clients' tabs, and sharing
the same prostitutes. No, that doesn't say that people are
(19:49):
on edge, says Rob Stut's been a long time Republican strategist. Day,
he's got a lot to do. He did not get
a letter. There's a lot of wondering if this is
all there is now. I don't know about you, but
if I had my phone calls intercepted, I would not
be worried about corruption charges. Might be worried about some
(20:11):
of the foul things that I say privately, but not
on corruption charges. If all these people are nervous and
skittish and they're all whispering and gossiping to each other,
it's they're worried that they're going to get caught. They're
worried that they have incriminating information. They came out of
their mouths and onto the recording. A handful of Newsom's
(20:35):
current and former aids received the letters the governor. The
Governor's office has confirmed that numerous lobbyists were on the
FBI's mailing list. Some of the people who got the
letters weren't in California. They were in Malli. They were
(21:01):
on some other some other junket, some corrupt junket, some
kind of Maui conference. One more thing on the fire.
Politico has a story about how there was supposed to
be something called the Resilient Rebuilding Authority for Alta, Dina
(21:27):
and the Palisades, and it looks like that idea has collapsed.
It was going to be a master plan for the
recovery effort, and it would have funding to carry it out.
But now the whole thing's collapsed. Everybody is on their own.
According to assemblymen, a Democrat who represents Altadena named John Harrobedian,
(21:52):
this is a ticking time bomb. We don't have time
to wait. The victims are hurt. The fire victims are
really struggling, and it's getting worse and worse because they've
had to spend all their savings, they're taking on debt.
More than half the residents had less than a year
of displacement coverage remaining on their insurance, where they never
(22:15):
had eddy at all. And here's another angle that is
the first time I'm eating about this. Insurance covers a
temporary home maybe for a year, a year and a half,
and then you're out of luck. And because the city
and county are so slow and stupid. But you see,
but what did Bass do? People can't get permits still
(22:38):
at a city hall. There is one house that was built.
She takes credit for it, except that house was not
burned in the fire. That property was purchased before the fire. Meantime,
people are now running out of insurance to cover their
costs because you know, by the way the uh, the
(23:02):
delay that people got. They don't have to pay their
mortgage for a year that's running out too.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Yeah, so people, you know, I never really thought about.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
That, not in either. It's stuff and that's so unfair. Yeah.
They something you don't think about unless you're involved in
something like this. How long do the benefits run out?
And the insurance companies you know, are still refusing to pay.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
Those insurance come I mean they you know, this is
why I wish I believed in an afterlife heaven and hell,
God and Satan, because then I would know all the
insurance executives would be in hell. Yeah, and I would
feel good every I'd wake up and it's like, you know,
a lot of times running out on them. They're another
day closer to burning in hell forever, which is where
(23:47):
insurance executives.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Ought to come on Ricardo, Laura, what are you gonna
do about this?
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Right, stop traveling on our dime.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
He's another one who escaped after not only incredible incompetence, right,
he engineered There were forms that the insurance industry agreed
to two months before the fire, which allowed them to
abandon thousands of homeowners just cut off their insurance happened
(24:13):
to a lot of people in the Palisades, and and
and Lara engineered it because he botched it. He thought
he was making it so most people were guaranteed to
get insurance. He actually made it so most people would
lose insurance. The insurance companies out foxed him, and then
he complained they bullied me. And then you have the
(24:34):
scandal of the dozens of trips he took.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Yeah, charge, I'd like to go on a safari, thank
you very much, but I'm going to end up paying
for it on my own. No one else is paying
for it.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
You're not corrupt.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
I'm not. I'm not convincing.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Maybe you're just covering it up.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
With you're listening to John Cobbels on demand from KFI
Am sixty.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
And listen to you meant people melting down in airports
and on airplanes. They scream at people who can't possibly
who have nothing to do with whatever the delay is
and can't do anything to relieve the delay. Don't play
you a clip that somebody took and posted on tiktop.
It's a Southwest Airlines passenger, a young woman at the
(25:21):
Denver airport and she's screaming at a gate agent because
a flight is late. The funny thing is, this woman
is screaming, she's holding up the phone, her phone. The
whole time she's screaming. People like to thrust out in
front of them like it's some kind of weapon, like
it's some kind of shield. So she's screaming waving the phone.
(25:42):
But the TikTok video gives you a shot of the
gate agent. This lady's not wrapped too tight, she's not
wearing she's wearing not one, but two masks. So you
have a crazy lady whose plane is late, waving her
phone in the air at a woman who has two
masks on her face. And I just I couldn't get
(26:03):
enough of the video. Listen to the audio. Do you
guys feel safe? If you guys feel safe? How dare
you treat me this way? You want our play legs?
Why you tell me I can't go.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
There, legs because we have the schedule.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Where is the camera rolling in the air? Eventually, Tom,
you're gonna come, Who's gonna come and get you fired?
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Because it is not okay.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Okay? I you why is our place not bording? And
you told me that I can't go because you've a
full of flies and you need to get to see
some one out. Wow, here comes the cops to arrest her,
(27:21):
and some people in the crowd start to cheer. Boy
she I do you think she's married? God help? The
guy has to wake up and then listen to that
every morning, Holy mackerel, the uh and and the lady
she's screaming at is wearing two masks. And I look
at that and I go, what what went wrong in
(27:42):
the world?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
When?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
When? Where did all these people come from? Well? How
could you not deal with a with a delay at
the airport? I don't know why she got kicked off.
Maybe she got kicked off because she was screaming at everybody.
That might be a clue there. All right, we'll see
you tomorrow. Mark Thompson is in for Conway next. Is
that correct? Did I get proper intelligence on that? All right?
(28:05):
Mark Thompson in for Conway LC tomorrow. Michael Krozer is
the news live in the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Hey,
you've been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You
can always hear the show live on KFI Am six
forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,
and of course anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
I am six forty. You're listening to the John Cobelt
Podcast on the iHeartRadio app. We are on every day
one till four o'clock. After four o'clock John Cobelt Show
on demand on the iHeart app, and you listen to
what you missed in that first hour. We did a
lot on in La another La Times expose about the
Palisades fire. It is hard to believe. Every few days,
(00:23):
another revelation, and often the revelations are about all these
officials lying, lying and then shutting down, disappearing, refusing to comment.
And the latest is about the interim fire chief, Ronnie Vanueva.
He took over after Kristin Crowley was fired by Karen Bass.
When Crowley pointed out that Bass had basically defunded the
(00:48):
fire department and they didn't have the personnel or the
fire trucks of the mechanics necessary. Of course, Crowley her
sins included not deploying existing fire trucks, personnel, not following
up on the January first fire, and that January first
fire is looming more and more important as time goes by.
It was set by an arsonist. They caught the arsonist.
(01:10):
He's going to go on trial eventually, and but for
the after they put it out, and they put it
out relatively quickly. It was it was a small fire
when you talk about Acridge. But on January second, January third,
and in the days following, they they they were hotspots.
There were hotspots, and the firefighters wanted to put them out,
(01:33):
hot tree stumps, hot rocks, smoke, smoldering and inexplicably, inexplicably,
the battalion chiefs said, let's go home, roll up the hoses.
And then you had via Aweva ronnie Vi in a Weeva.
He claimed that on January third, we cold trailed the
(01:53):
fire area. We went back there again. We dug it out,
you know, they put their hands to feel for he
they dug out the hotspots, We put letters on it.
We cold trailed again. We did all of that. Did
none of that, according to the log in their records,
doesn't mention cold trailing, doesn't mention any action. In fact,
(02:17):
they sent everybody home after thirty four minutes. The fire
department spokesperson contacted by the La Times, Captain Eric Spott,
Eric Scott. Rather they sent him emails, they sent him
text they sent him in person. The agency refuses to
explain the in AEVA, does not respond to any requests
for interviews, does not respond with any comments at all,
(02:40):
So the cover up continues. Let's talk now to Sayed Kashani,
the attorney who has been on our show a number
of times. He's going to the meetings. He was burned
out in the palisades, sayed, how are you? Sayed beeped
at me and is he gone. We'll figure out what's
(03:04):
wrong with the connection, because I don't know how to
interpret a beat. By the way, former LA Fire Department management,
like battalion chief said Battalion Chief Rick Crawford for Assistant
Chief Patrick Butler said, you know, if you're going to
do an after action report, it's got to include the
(03:26):
period before the fire, especially since one fire led to
the next, and this after action report that the fire
department put out addressed none of that, saied Kashani.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
How are you john to have good to be back
on our show?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Well, what do you make of all this here?
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Well, as you know, my my focus has been on
the water supply in the reservoir from day one of this,
and we had an additional whitewash from the state on
this issue. You may recall it. About two months ago,
we had a conversation John in which we gust and
we predicted that the state was going to issue a
(04:04):
report which we'll say, nothing to see here. The reservoir
wouldn't have made any difference if it were full of
water at the time of the fire. Well and behold,
two days ago we got a report from the state
claiming nothing to see here. The reservoir would have made
no difference during this fire, which is exactly as we predicted.
But this report, as we said, is self serving and
(04:27):
not credible. First of all, who authored this report. It
came from five California agencies. Three of the agencies are
involved in so called clean water regulations, that's California EPA,
California Water Quality Management, these entities. These are the same
entities and government agencies that forced DWP to drain the reservoir.
(04:52):
So the same agencies that required the reservoir to be
drained in two thousand and four are now coming out
and claiming, oh, this is to make any difference. Well,
what else are they going to say? They're the ones
responsible for draining the reservoir. Obviously they're not going to
come forward and admit that, oh, because we drained the reservoir,
this caused a problem. Obviously they're going to claim that
(05:13):
it wouldn't have made any difference in the fire would
have burned all these houses anyway. So right now, right away,
Number one, lack of credibility. Number two, what is the
information in the report? There's no information in the report.
The report from these state agencies is just repeating claims
from the Department of Water and Power. So it's just
(05:33):
circular reasoning. They're repeating what the DWT claimed actually on
a press release they made back in July, where the
Department of Water Power just gave some basic nonsense about
well we've got a flow ray and we've got this
and that, and no details or facts or information, just
claiming well, this is our system works. Well, the state
jumped on that and said it wouldn't have made any difference. Now,
(05:55):
if you want to get into the details, I can
do that too. But this report is just more of
the same whitewash were getting from government agencies covering up
their own mistakes, issuing self serving reports. No independent investigation
of what happened or why it happened.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
There is no investigation coming from the state Attorney General
or from the Assembly or the Senate. There should be
a committee hearing into the reservoir situation. And then this
new report today cold trailing never done at the Lockman fire.
I mean, all we now have after action state report,
after action local report has told us nothing and covered
(06:35):
up all the bad acts and all the negligence. And
maybe the FEDS can investigate this stuff. I know they
started with that public hearing last week. I don't know
if they're going to follow through. There seems to be
no curiosity on the part of people those who in charge.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Well, the US Attorney is doing some investigation, but you
know they're trying to shut him down too. I mean,
I had to put a party label on it. I
didn't want to get to so much into the politics here,
but the Democrats in Congress have been trying to shut
down and get fired our local US attorney who's the
only one who did an investigation or found the arsonists
(07:15):
and also has been trying to investigate what happened in
the Lackman fire, whether it was put out, whether there
was sufficient control and clearance after the fire, and the
Democrats in Congress have been trying to shut him down.
The state filed the lawsuit against the US attorney to
try to remove him from his post.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
One of the things about the water Reservoir report, and
this has fried me from the beginning, is they keep
talking about they had a regulation they had to put
they had to replace the cover because it's used for
drinking water. This was not a necessary drinking water reservoir.
It was built for firefighting. In fact, since the reservoir
(07:55):
was empty for a year, there was no shortage of
drinking water in the Palisades at all. But they intentionally
confused those issues to make it seem like, hey, we
were mandated by law to repair this reservoir, and even
if they were, it should have taken a month, not
a year.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Not only that there was no reason to drain the
reservoir where they were waiting and going through their so
called contracting process to find someone to fix the cover.
They even if we accept, even if we agree, which
I don't agree. And there's a professor at UCLA, you
should talk to depitheologist who has done a study of
this area and shown that there's no water risk whatsoever,
(08:37):
no risk of contamination, no risk of any problem to
the water spright but let's put that aside. All they
had to do was shut off the valve that runs
from the reservoir to the drinking water supply, leaves the
reservoir full until you're ready to fix the cover, and
meanwhile the water is sitting there in the case of
an emergency, in a fire emergency, you open the valve
and the water is available. But instead they drained it
(09:00):
lad And now the same state agencies that forced the
DWT to drain the reservoir are now saying, Oh, this
wouldn't have made any difference. I can't stand what they're saying.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
I can't. I mentioned this earlier in the show. I
met a couple on a hiking trail on the Palisades.
He saved this house with his own two and a
half inch fire hose because he'd gone through a fire
as a child with his family, and so he wet
down his property in his roof and he saved several
homes around him, and nobody from the fire department ever
(09:32):
showed up to do anything useful. All by himself with
one hose, he saved several homes. I think the one hundred
and seventeen million gallons would have made a difference going
out on my neighbor.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
My neighbor three houses down was out there with the
fire hose and he was able to keep his house
free of fire and safe until about ten thirty eleven
o'clock the first night when the water shut off. All
it took was a little bit of water. In many areas,
there were not sheets of flames. Some inferno are running
(10:04):
down the hill destroying everything. We're talking about embers. We're
talking about floating, small pockets of fire that could easily
have been controlled with a small amount of water. Many
of the houses had sprinklers, sprinkler systems indoor and outdoor,
which could have controlled the fire. Right, hang on, hang
on just a second one to continue system.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, I gotta take a break. Do the news.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI A
M six forty.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
We continued with Palisades attorney say Ed Kashani lost his
house in the fire, and he has been tracking meetings.
He's been tracking all the reports. We've been discussing the
after action report from the state over the reservoir situation
and the lack of water which was completely whitewashed. UH
and then the report from the after action report from
(10:53):
the LA Fire Department, same thing, completely white whitewashed the
lack of treatment to the original fire, which led to
the second fire. And we've got a situation, obviously now
where everyone is officially not taking any responsibility for all
their bad actions, their inactions, the damage they caused, their
(11:17):
lack of response, their lack of preparation. I mean, it's
a fiasco of monumental proportions, and nobody. Nobody's commenting anymore,
nobody's putting anything in the reports. We're all just supposed
to go home. So is this the way it's going
to be. What is everybody's supposed to do about this situation?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Well, the two ways that we're going to get the information.
The one is if again as we've talked before, if
there's an independent investigation, meaning a federal investigation, and the
state and the locals are doing their best trying to
shut down the federal investigation, but some of it is
continuing with the US Attorney and possibly the said investigation.
(11:58):
The other way, actually they're doing a very good job,
is the private attorneys prosecuting the lawsuits against the city
in the state. They've done excellent research and come up
with excellent information. I know you've had some of them
on your show, Roger. They're doing a very good job.
And you know what's interesting, what the state is doing
in a way is self defeating, because do you remember
(12:20):
about two weeks ago the governor pooh pooed these lawsuits.
He came out and said these losses are frivolous, and
arsenals said this fire forget it. The very next stay
what happened, some firemen came forward whistleblowers and said, hey,
wait a minute. We wanted to secure the site, eliminate
the hospots and fires, but we were told to leave.
(12:41):
So the more the state squeezes and tries to suppress information,
the more whistleblowers come forward and maybe tell us the truth.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
That's really the only hope is that they're getting so angry,
so pissed off at everyone lying and covering up, they're
going to say the hell with it. They're all afraid
of getting fired. Though. I think every man and woman
in the LA Fire Department who knows something important doesn't
want to talk publicly, doesn't want their name attached to
it because Karen vasseill get rid of them.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Well, they saw what happened to their former chief chief Crowley,
so possible they're afraid of that, but there are protections
for firemen who come forward and make statements. I just
hope that some of them are brave enough and conscious
is enough to come forward. Some obviously have made statements,
not necessarily on the record, but they've made statements and
(13:29):
they've told information. So they people need to come forward
and tell the truth. That's the only way we're going
to get to the bottom of this.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
All right, thank you for coming on, Saed.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Sure, thank you for having me appreciate it, all.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Right, said Kashan. He's an attorney, and I've learned outside
the LA Times there aren't too many other sources of
reliable information. And he has been because he's actually read
all the reports and he's gone to the meetings. And
we don't have an infrastructure here anymore to investigate and
(14:03):
report on what really happened and why it happened. And
there's nobody to make all these people accountable. Nobody's gotten fired.
Newsome's still in office. He's running for president. Bass is
still in office. She's running for reelection. Jenise Kinoniez is
still getting her seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars salary.
(14:24):
Kristin Crowley is still working for the fire department. She
got demoted and sent to an office, but she's working.
Ronnie van Oweva is still working. All these and then
this new one Hi Memore, and none of them are
telling the truth. None of them are being forthcoming, all
of them are stonewalling, all of them are evading responsibility.
All of them think we're a bunch of idiots. The
(14:46):
spokespeople have even stopped talking. Well again, this is not
going away because there's too much juicy stuff that's come
out just in recent weeks, and there's a whole lot
more to come. So all the people that care, you know,
the the attorneys, as he pointed out, they were doing
the lawsuits, the Ali Times writers, what we're doing here,
(15:10):
people like say Ed Kashani, We're just going to keep
at it and we'll find out it's never going to
go away. Karen Bass will be connected that fire. Gaven
Newsen will be connected that fire every day for the
rest of his life. We're going to see to that.
And same thing with Genie Canonias, and the same thing
with the rest of these Charlatans. Clowns and jokers. You
think you think you can kill people and get away
(15:32):
with it. You think you can burn a whole town
down and get away with it. You really think you
can do that? Huh, Well, you're not going to more
coming up.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
So many lives coming out of the fire. Karen Bass
had one. You probably heard the story that the first
home in the Palisades has been rebuilt, right, and Karen
Bass took credit. She wrote in a statement, the Palisades
(16:10):
community has been through an unimaginable year, and my heart
breaks for every family that won't be able to be
home this holiday season. Right, but today is an important
moment of hope. With more and more projects nearing completion
across the Palisades. There are zero projects nearing completion. The
City of Los Angeles remains committed to expediting every aspect
(16:31):
of the rebuilding process until every family is back home. Okay,
that's because one home was given a certificate of occupancy.
That home was purchased in early November and was not
burned in the fire. They had to halt the rebuild
(16:57):
while the disaster happened, but the the home wasn't burned.
She's taking credit that. Look, we're on our way. This
is the first rebuild since this was in the works
before the fire. They had to stop because of the fire,
but the property was not damaged by the fire. I mean,
(17:20):
she is shameless and she thinks again that nobody's going
to notice. In fact, it ended up being delayed because
of debris removal, plan checks and permit reviews. Now the
house is finished and was publicly celebrated by Karen Bass
(17:41):
as a sign that we're building is taking shape. No,
at this stage, out of all the homes that were burned,
none of them have been rebuilt. Three hundred permits out
of nearly seven thousand bird structures, three hundred, none of
them to completion. The home was assessed for sale two
(18:01):
months before the fire and sold shortly thereafter. The building
plans were submitted soon after the purchase. Final approval didn't
come till April. Total absolute nonsense and lies. Meantime, up
in Sacramento, we've been telling you about all the corruption
(18:22):
going on there, and if you remember, last week, the
FBI had sent letters to many politicians, staff members, lobbyists
in Gavin Newsom's orbit and in the Sacramento government. And
this came right after Newsom's former chief of staff, Deana
Williamson was indicted on twenty three felony charges she and
(18:45):
a couple of others were looting money from an account
that was owned by Xavier Bessera's political Action committee or
his campaign committee. And now The New York Times has
done a story. They had a lot of reporters sniffing
(19:05):
around Sacramento these people, and there were dozens and dozens
of them had their phone calls and text messages and
emails intercepted, phone calls and text messages captured on a
wire tap. Many of them have worked together for decades.
(19:26):
According to The New York Times, they work in a
several block radius around the state capitol, drinking at the
same ordering holes, dining on their clients' tabs, and sharing
the same prostitutes. No, that doesn't say that people are
(19:49):
on edge, says Rob Stut's been a long time Republican strategist. Day,
he's got a lot to do. He did not get
a letter. There's a lot of wondering if this is
all there is now. I don't know about you, but
if I had my phone calls intercepted, I would not
be worried about corruption charges. Might be worried about some
(20:11):
of the foul things that I say privately, but not
on corruption charges. If all these people are nervous and
skittish and they're all whispering and gossiping to each other,
it's they're worried that they're going to get caught. They're
worried that they have incriminating information. They came out of
their mouths and onto the recording. A handful of Newsom's
(20:35):
current and former aids received the letters the governor. The
Governor's office has confirmed that numerous lobbyists were on the
FBI's mailing list. Some of the people who got the
letters weren't in California. They were in Malli. They were
(21:01):
on some other some other junket, some corrupt junket, some
kind of Maui conference. One more thing on the fire.
Politico has a story about how there was supposed to
be something called the Resilient Rebuilding Authority for Alta, Dina
(21:27):
and the Palisades, and it looks like that idea has collapsed.
It was going to be a master plan for the
recovery effort, and it would have funding to carry it out.
But now the whole thing's collapsed. Everybody is on their own.
According to assemblymen, a Democrat who represents Altadena named John Harrobedian,
(21:52):
this is a ticking time bomb. We don't have time
to wait. The victims are hurt. The fire victims are
really struggling, and it's getting worse and worse because they've
had to spend all their savings, they're taking on debt.
More than half the residents had less than a year
of displacement coverage remaining on their insurance, where they never
(22:15):
had eddy at all. And here's another angle that is
the first time I'm eating about this. Insurance covers a
temporary home maybe for a year, a year and a half,
and then you're out of luck. And because the city
and county are so slow and stupid. But you see,
but what did Bass do? People can't get permits still
(22:38):
at a city hall. There is one house that was built.
She takes credit for it, except that house was not
burned in the fire. That property was purchased before the fire. Meantime,
people are now running out of insurance to cover their
costs because you know, by the way the uh, the
(23:02):
delay that people got. They don't have to pay their
mortgage for a year that's running out too.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Yeah, so people, you know, I never really thought about.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
That, not in either. It's stuff and that's so unfair. Yeah.
They something you don't think about unless you're involved in
something like this. How long do the benefits run out?
And the insurance companies you know, are still refusing to pay.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
Those insurance come I mean they you know, this is
why I wish I believed in an afterlife heaven and hell,
God and Satan, because then I would know all the
insurance executives would be in hell. Yeah, and I would
feel good every I'd wake up and it's like, you know,
a lot of times running out on them. They're another
day closer to burning in hell forever, which is where
(23:47):
insurance executives.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Ought to come on Ricardo, Laura, what are you gonna
do about this?
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Right, stop traveling on our dime.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
He's another one who escaped after not only incredible incompetence, right,
he engineered There were forms that the insurance industry agreed
to two months before the fire, which allowed them to
abandon thousands of homeowners just cut off their insurance happened
(24:13):
to a lot of people in the Palisades, and and
and Lara engineered it because he botched it. He thought
he was making it so most people were guaranteed to
get insurance. He actually made it so most people would
lose insurance. The insurance companies out foxed him, and then
he complained they bullied me. And then you have the
(24:34):
scandal of the dozens of trips he took.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Yeah, charge, I'd like to go on a safari, thank
you very much, but I'm going to end up paying
for it on my own. No one else is paying
for it.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
You're not corrupt.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
I'm not. I'm not convincing.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Maybe you're just covering it up.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
With you're listening to John Cobbels on demand from KFI
Am sixty.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
And listen to you meant people melting down in airports
and on airplanes. They scream at people who can't possibly
who have nothing to do with whatever the delay is
and can't do anything to relieve the delay. Don't play
you a clip that somebody took and posted on tiktop.
It's a Southwest Airlines passenger, a young woman at the
(25:21):
Denver airport and she's screaming at a gate agent because
a flight is late. The funny thing is, this woman
is screaming, she's holding up the phone, her phone. The
whole time she's screaming. People like to thrust out in
front of them like it's some kind of weapon, like
it's some kind of shield. So she's screaming waving the phone.
(25:42):
But the TikTok video gives you a shot of the
gate agent. This lady's not wrapped too tight, she's not
wearing she's wearing not one, but two masks. So you
have a crazy lady whose plane is late, waving her
phone in the air at a woman who has two
masks on her face. And I just I couldn't get
(26:03):
enough of the video. Listen to the audio. Do you
guys feel safe? If you guys feel safe? How dare
you treat me this way? You want our play legs?
Why you tell me I can't go.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
There, legs because we have the schedule.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Where is the camera rolling in the air? Eventually, Tom,
you're gonna come, Who's gonna come and get you fired?
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Because it is not okay.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Okay? I you why is our place not bording? And
you told me that I can't go because you've a
full of flies and you need to get to see
some one out. Wow, here comes the cops to arrest her,
(27:21):
and some people in the crowd start to cheer. Boy
she I do you think she's married? God help? The
guy has to wake up and then listen to that
every morning, Holy mackerel, the uh and and the lady
she's screaming at is wearing two masks. And I look
at that and I go, what what went wrong in
(27:42):
the world?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
When?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
When? Where did all these people come from? Well? How
could you not deal with a with a delay at
the airport? I don't know why she got kicked off.
Maybe she got kicked off because she was screaming at everybody.
That might be a clue there. All right, we'll see
you tomorrow. Mark Thompson is in for Conway next. Is
that correct? Did I get proper intelligence on that? All right?
(28:05):
Mark Thompson in for Conway LC tomorrow. Michael Krozer is
the news live in the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Hey,
you've been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You
can always hear the show live on KFI Am six
forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,
and of course anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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John Kobylt
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